Three Darlington youth team players recently spent a week training at FC Porto – Graeme Lumley gives us an account of the week.

Travelling as part of a Polam Hall School party, Darlington FC players Fynn Lumley (goalkeeper u13), Milo Harris (forward u13) and Kieran Dixon (midfielder u14) all spent the half term week training at the Youth Academy of FC Porto, in Portugal.

The first 2 days training were spent at Vitalis Park, in the heart of the city of Porto.  Once the original home stadium, the location is now the Youth Academy base and enjoys two 3G pitches, one partially covered to provide shade. Each day the boys were given lunch in the Academy canteen before being issued with fresh FC Porto training kit and heading out onto the pitches.

For the first 2 days Fynn was fortunate enough to be keeper training on his own, with 3 Academy keeper coaches for company.  Interestingly they spent much of the time working with ball into his feet, and when I spoke with Thiago (one of the keeper coaches) he said it was most important that Fynn could play football and not just make saves. Several drills were focussed around passing fast balls into him and closing him down quickly so that he had to control, open out and pass to the opposite side under pressure. They also spent some time showing him how to "chop" his kicks from his hands so that the ball travelled flatter and further (rather than the traditional up and under keeper kicks).

The outfield players also had 4 coaches drilling them in u14 and u16 groups - the focus being very much on ball possession, touch, and passing. The speed and intensity of the drills, particularly in the 27degree heat was high.  Again, they were very keen to instil a real sense of pace and quality to the boys passing - giving the ball away cheaply, or making a poor quality pass was really discouraged, but above all the coaches were incredibly supportive and positive in their coaching style.

For one of the days we shared the coaching area with Epsom Colts, an u14 team from Surrey who were there on a similar trip. Fynn took on their keeper (who was 2 years his senior) and beat him in the cross bar challenge, a 1-on-1 handling drill and "keeper combat", so a great result for Darlo'.

We then spent 2 days training at FC Fao, which is a local 3rd division side who act as a feeder academy for FC Porto. The same coaches joined us there and again the training, preparation and professionalism was first class, with top quality 3G semi-grass surfaces, lunches, and kit all laid on.  We also played 2 competitive matches at FC Fao, the first night game being Polam u13's against Dragon Force (FC Porto's academy) u12's and lost a close fought 2-1.  This was followed by an even later 20:30 KO u16 game, where FC Fao Academy ran out 6-0 winners.

During the week we were invited as guests to an FC Porto home match, at Estadio do Dragao, where they drew 0-0 with local rivals and 2nd tier leaders Leixoes in the Taca da Liga (League Cup).

Finally, on our last day we returned to Estadio do Dragao for lunch with the coaching staff in one of the executive boxes, followed by medal presentations to all the boys, a back stage tour of the stadium and visit to the FC Porto museum, quite possibly the best museum I've ever been to... An obligatory trip to the club shop saw all the lads shell out for FC Porto tops and we headed back to England.  I think everyone took something from the week and the FC Porto coaches were really keen to understand how our coaching in the UK differed from theirs. I think we might have a Darlington 'FC Porto' supporters club in the making!!